Sheree and I met at Belhaven College in 1980 and married the following year. After two years in youth ministry at the First Presbyterian Church in Biloxi, we accepted an invitation from the African Bible College to move to Liberia with our newborn son. I developed and taught some Christian Education classes while Sheree taught the missionary children in a one-room schoolhouse. At the completion of our two-year term, we entered seminary at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi. By the time I graduated, we had three sons and a calling to plant a church.
Over a 22 year period, I was blessed by God to be able to plant and pastor two wonderful churches in Florida: New Hope PCA in Eustis and Cross Creek Church in St. Johns.

Meanwhile, Liberia suffered a 14-year civil war. The war crimes and atrocities left deep scars both on the country and on the souls of the survivors. My first trip back was in 2006. I continued these pilgrimages for about 5 years until God lead me to resign from Cross Creek so that I could join the faculty of ELI and focus on training pastors in Liberia.

In those early years, I was an adjunct faculty member with the African Bible College University and training village pastors on the weekends. It was during the course of this experience that I realized that most pastors would never make it to a Bible college or seminary. Furthermore, without a biblical and theological foundation, I saw just how susceptible they were to false beliefs and leading their churches away from the truth.

MY ROLE
In January of 2015, I became the Executive Director. While I continue to work with our 45 national trainers in Liberia, most of my time is spent stateside leading and supporting our rapidly growing faculty and positioning the organization to scale its impact. I am blessed with an incredible Faculty Leadership Team and an outstanding Board of Directors.

A veteran public school teacher of 24 years, Sheree took early retirement in 2015 to care for her mom who had a stroke and needed to move into our home in St. Augustine, FL. She now runs her own business out of our home—Seabreezy Designs. We have three grown sons, two wonderful daughter-in-laws, 3 handsome fun-loving grandsons, and a beautiful Costa Rican granddaughter. When we need a break, our first choice is to go fishing.